Mass deletion and renaming of selectors. Refinement of font manager

[creer]

Hello, Pinegrow is a great tool, but of course nothing is perfect, and, in this post, I have listed items that contradict the philosophy of your product, which is designed to speed up development. Here is the text from your website, “ Pinegrow,
visual web editor for professionals. Pinegrow lets you work faster with HTML, CSS / SASS, Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS, GreenSock Interactions, WordPress and WooCommerce…”
I’ve tried a dozen different website/frontend building tools and realized that all of the above features are perfectly implemented in them, but not in Pinegrow.

1. Deleting classes.
   If I want to delete a class from a project, it will be deleted only in CSS, but in html elements it will remain and I will have to delete them manually or use another tool to delete them.
   Why not add a simple or customizable “delete everywhere” checkbox if you want to leave the ability for the user to delete a class only in the CSS without affecting the rest of the place?

2. Renaming classes
   This pain is much like the first one. Why can’t the user mass change the class name/id etc? Why not add a simple or customizable “rename everywhere” checkbox if you want to leave it up to the user to rename selectors in only one place without affecting the rest of the locations?

You’ll probably reply that I can easily mass delete or rename a class via a code editor like Vs code, but why doesn’t a tool that is designed to speed up development take care of this easy chore?

3. Font manager
   It’s impossible to add and manage fonts from the interface. You always have to look Visual Studio Code (I get a nasty bug when doing this, but more on that later) or use the built-in code editor - this slows down development a lot.
   Why not add the ability through the interface to add local fonts? After all, those who want to add fonts manually will keep this option anyway.

4. Mobile First approach only
   Why in a powerful and professional html+css editor you can’t do desktop first development through the visual interface? What is the reason for this limitation?
   At the moment I have to use a code editor to work with adaptability and it clearly slows down development.

Pinegrow is a powerful tool with huge functionality, but for some reason unknown to me it lacks basic features that all visual editors usually have. I couldn’t even imagine when I was about to install this professional tool that it lacks such fundamental and basic features of visual editors.

On the plus side, I love the powerful Interactions - it’s beautiful. I also like that I can customize the interface to my liking, all the code under my controller, a great Grid Builder and lots of useful integrations and features. BUT overall Pinegrow looks and works like a typical free open source product, BUT wait, Pinegrow costs $99 to $249 per year
Something in it is implemented very well, something extremely poorly.

Note that I am not the first and not the last to mention these shortcomings of Pinegrow and it has been going on for years

[creer]

Edited the text a bit and added recommendations.

Don’t get me wrong, I generally like Pinegrow, but it makes some simple things very complicated.

[TechAkayy]

@creer, thanks for creating this feature request, would be great if you can rename the title to the requested feature(s).

Also it’s best to always search for and reply to existing feature requests, so it’s easy for the community and the team to track.

Also, w.r.t your point about responsive designing capability (4), you can already use Pinegrow’s responsive breakpoints dropdown to choose the sizes to design your page, in fact in multiple page views at the same time. Desktop first or Mobile first are purely the users choice. Here are the relevant docs page - Page views | Pinegrow Web Editor. Also, can I suggest not replying to multiple old threads, instead link them in this feature request post if you still want to.

[creer]

@TechAkayy Thank you for your help

I changed the title, but I don’t think it makes sense, because the functions I wrote about here have been requested many times over the last 5-6 years. Pinegrow developers just ignore these requests. I’m sure if we do a poll, most users will agree that they need the features I wrote about here.

please answer, do you need the ability to delete and rename selectors in bulk? and a font manager that allows you to visually manage fonts?

About adaptive design
I still couldn’t get breakpoints to work as desktop first. I’ll try to peruse the documentation tomorrow and get breakpoints to work from 1920px to 0px instead of the other way around.

[TechAkayy]

For multiple page views, just follow the icons next to the file name (for eg, index.html). To swap between page views, use the brush icon before the close icon (in the specific page view). Try the intro video via the Support menu in Pinegrow - links here - Pinegrow Walkthrough - Video | Pinegrow Web Editor,

@creer

I still couldn’t get breakpoints to work as desktop first. I’ll try to peruse the documentation tomorrow and get breakpoints to work from 1920px to 0px instead of the other way around.

You will have to define the breakpoints (again, users have complete freedom here) via menu Page > Manage breakpoints.

You can even fetch it from stylesheets as well. But beware, sometimes when using external themes (example below), the list can be weird, so best to clean it up in this case!

[travelgasm]

@creer

Pinegrow is a powerful tool with huge functionality, but for some reason unknown to me it lacks basic features that all visual editors usually have.

Definitely; I really want to like Pinegrow, but it lacks some really basic functionality that has been present in visual editors for decades. I shared some of my own feature requests in another post, but after further discussion with the insightful @red-rosefields, I distilled some of my thoughts accordingly:

@travelgasm

I find myself having to switch over to other apps too often for really basic tasks — spell check, tables, look up the size of an image — and the visual editor mode losing links on copy-paste is a nightmare. It essentially makes editing impossible. I have never encountered an HTML editor that loses embedded links when you copy paste a block of text in a visual mode…

Most HTML editors with a visual mode just create a new paragraph tag when you hit return when writing… but Pinegrow doesn’t seem to do this consistently (in the middle of an existing block of text, for example). When it does create a new paragraph, it’s not on a new line in the code, either.

In my view, some of these issues are more like bugs than feature omissions, even.

@creer

the functions I wrote about here have been requested many times over the last 5-6 years. Pinegrow developers just ignore these requests. I’m sure if we do a poll, most users will agree that they need the features I wrote about here.

Unfortunately, this does seem to be the case. I’m optimistic that this will change going forward, though. Perhaps some polling for specific issues would be worthwhile, too.

[creer]

@travelgasm Thanks for your post, you are much deeper into Pinegrow than I am. I’m just yet to come across these limitations of Pinegrow’s visual editor
Unfortunately I am not so optimistic about Pinegrow, as the developers position it as “ Pinegrow should be viewed as a tool in your arsenal rather than the solution to ALL your web-development needs”.
All in all, it looks like these basic features (in our opinion) will remain unrealized for a long time or forever.

[travelgasm]

@creer

Unfortunately I am not so optimistic about Pinegrow, as the developers position it as “ Pinegrow should be viewed as a tool in your arsenal rather than the solution to ALL your web-development needs”.

Perhaps you’re right and we will have to switch to something else. I already have started to use Pinegrow less and less; it’s just too much of a pain to use for writing, but I’ll hope for the best.

[Emmanuel]

@travelgasm @creer

I’ve often talked about this quest for the holy grail that drives us developers, or even integrators, to search for that one development solution that would allow us to do everything from a single application. I’m not convinced that this is a wise quest; history and the present show us that all the solutions that claimed to meet this ultimate expectation have not lived up to their promises.

At Pinegrow, we’ve set a main goal: to enable the creation and editing of all standard HTML/CSS/JS documents and provide a set of visual tools designed to make life easier for integrator developers with the most common and/or repetitive tasks.

Since 2014, it’s clear that we’ve strayed a bit from our simple objectives, as we’ve introduced dozens and dozens of new features, often unprecedented and sometimes unmatched, making thousands of developers around the world happy.

Our ambition is to satisfy the largest number of users with a solid base set, offering ambitious features that meet modern web development needs, such as the WordPress Theme Builder, the interaction editor with its integrated timeline, the visual Tailwind CSS editor, and its continuously evolving features since its introduction, etc. However, there will always be, inevitably, areas where we won’t have a presence.

For technical reasons, or simply by choice, because we believe that the demand isn’t suitable.

We are strong advocates for tool diversity in a workflow because while we recognize our strengths, we also acknowledge the areas where we are not present or not comprehensive enough.

Whether it’s with Pinegrow or another solution, there will always be one or more points that won’t work as you want or won’t be available in the solution you’ve chosen.

So, I encourage you to open up your methods and consider using suitable tools for those specific situations where your main tool isn’t a good fit.

[travelgasm]

@Emmanuel

Whether it’s with Pinegrow or another solution, there will always be one or more points that won’t work as you want or won’t be available in the solution you’ve chosen.

What alternative solution would you recommend for someone who would like to have:

• Links remain intact upon copy-paste in visual mode
• Paragraph tags generated on a new line in code when hitting return in visual mode
• Spell check
• Table editor
• Automatically completing the size of the image in code view when typing width and height tags

Thanks!

[Emmanuel]

@travelgasm

What alternative solution would you recommend for someone who would like to have:

• Links remain intact upon copy-paste in visual mode
• Paragraph tags generated on a new line in code when hitting return in visual mode
• Spell check
• Table editor
• Automatically completing the size of the image in code view when typing width and height tags

A quick and brief response would be as follows: I would recommend using a CMS instead of directly adding your content in HTML documents from Pinegrow.

• Use Pinegrow to create the template.
• Use a CMS to manage the content.

There’s definitely a more complex answer to this question using external tools, but it’s worth my time to look into it

[travelgasm]

Is it possible to get a refund for Pinegrow? Thank you.

[Emmanuel]

Well, I didn’t expect such a reaction to my suggestion, but for this kind of request, I recommend reaching out to support.

[travelgasm]

Perhaps it would be best for Pinegrow to stop advertising: “Use Pinegrow as CMS for static HTML websites.”

I can consider becoming a customer again should it offer the features I need. I wish Pinegrow all the best.

[creer2]

@Emmanuel

@Emmanuel

There’s definitely a more complex answer to this question using external tools, but it’s worth my time to look into it

this is Creer again.
The security system temporarily restricted me from posting and I had to log into the forum with a new account.

I have a question about using external tools.
Judging by the Interactions license on your site, I don’t have the right to layout a project in, say, bricks builder and move the layout to Pinegrow for animation, and then take the code with the interactions library and plug it into a project in bricks builder?

Do I need to build the site in bricks builder and move the layout to pinegrow and work only there to keep the right to use interactions?

[Emmanuel]

@creer2 The use case you mentioned does not conflict with the license of the Interactions add-on.

[creer2]

@Emmanuel please forgive me for being intrusive, I don’t speak English very well and I think I misunderstood your answer and the summary of the license.

I would like to clarify what is meant by “Can I create a component, sell it in marketplaces and allow buyers to use the component in website builders?”. Does this mean that I or my buyer/customer is NOT allowed to embed the Interactions library as custom code into a site created in a page builder, or is it saying that it is not allowed to integrate the Pinegrow Interactions library as a feature into a page builder?

One more point, is it saying here that it is not allowed to integrate the Interactions library as a feature into the page builder, but NOT as custom code on a site created in the page builder?

In short, am I allowed to embed the interaction library as custom code in a site created in the page builder? (i’m going to export the layout from page builder to Pinegrow to animate and add interactions, and then plug in the finished animation and interaction library code as custom code on a site instance that resides inside the page builder)

[Pinegrow_User]

For what its worth, users could also consider some of the following for Wordpress as all offer GSAP:

• Motion Page
• Softlite Litemove
• BricksForge
• Etc.,

Unles you already own Pinegrow Interactions.

Aside from no longer sounding like himself, I think Emmanuel’s over use of AI for his posts is over complicating the narratives.

[creer]

Hello, @Pinegrow_User thank you for your reply. I will think about it, but I wouldn’t want to overload my wordpress project with plugins when it can be avoided.
Especially plugins for animation.
Pinegrow interactions could be a great solution for me

[Emmanuel]

@Pinegrow_User

Aside from no longer sounding like himself, I think Emmanuel’s over use of AI for his posts is over complicating the narratives.

It’s almost insulting, but I’d rather laugh it off.
For convenience, I often use a translation tool (since I’m French) to make myself understood better, and I also often rely on AI for coding issues. However, the man I am is still the sole and only author of my words